Ongole: Officials advised to work in tandem to bring down rate of accidents

Ongole: Ongole MP Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy advised the officials to work with coordination and reduce the number of road accidents and casualties in the district.

He presided over the District Committee meeting on Road Safety held at the Collectorate in Ongole on Saturday. Srinivasulu Reddy observed that they were conducting the road safety awareness programmes perfectly, but the public will be benefitted only if the accidents are reduced. He asked the officials from the departments concerned to with cooperation and coordination to reduce the accidents and casualties. He mentioned that 606 people died and 1,696 people were injured in 1,483 accidents that occurred in 2020, and the number of deaths rose to 658 and 1,736 persons were injured in in 2021. He expressed concern over the increase in casualties in 2021 while the number of accidents remained the same in the last two years.

He said that the officials identified 66 black spots in the district and the committee will monitor the efforts of the departments in reducing road accidents, as per the orders of the Union government.

Deputy Transport Commissioner B Krishnaveni mentioned that repeated accidents were occurring at the identified black spots, while the R&B SE Vijayaratnam mentioned that they were doing works at 33 black spots to reduce the mishaps. The MP advised the officials to place warning boards, speed controllers and fencing on both sides of the national highways.

He suggested constructing underpasses at Maddipadu Gullapalli Growth Centre, Chirala, Martur and Medaramitla, and to remove encroachments on either sides of the roads. He announced that the emergency landing runway constructed on the highway at Singarayakonda and Medaramitla will be inaugurated soon.

He advised the officials to complete the construction of the driving school at Darsi and take measures to prevent accidents on the 900-metre stretch on the highway at Gundlapalli Growth Centre.

Collector Pravin Kumar announced that they were bringing IRAD advanced technology soon to the district to control road accidents and initiate relief works, with the help of a software company based in Chennai. He advised the officials to create awareness on road safety to the public and work to control the accidents. The Chirala MLA Karanam Balarama Krishnamurthy mentioned that a number of accidents were occurring at Vetapalem and Chirala on Ongole to Digamarru national highway, but the NHAI officials were not taking any measures to control them. He demanded construction of an underpass at Vodarevu, and a railway flyover on Parchur to Chirala road.

RTO Chandrasekhar Reddy, PR SE Kondaiah, DPO GV Narayana Reddy, NIC coordinator Venkata Subbaiah, and other officers from police and transport departments were present.